Existing comment:
2:45pm -- The Third Telegraph:
The powerful rain continued into the afternoon and around 2:00pm a large chunk near the center of the earthen dam washed away. Thirty minutes after the second message was sent, Emma Ehrenfeld, the South Fork telegraph operator, sent another warning to Johnstown. Not knowing if it would make it to the next telegraph office in Mineral Point, Emma put it on the wire at 2:25pm. The message did go through and reached East Conemaugh at 2:33pm. At 2:44pm, telegraph agent Frank Deckert received the message in Johnstown and telephoned Hettie Ogle, at the Western Union office in Johnstown. At about 3:00pm, she notified the Pittsburgh office of the danger at the South Fork Dam. It would be the last message she would ever send.
Postscript:
In the June 14, 1889 edition of the Johnstown Tribune, Editor George T. Swank reported that he received a phone call from Ogle about the dam around 3:15pm on May 31st. Sadly, the dam had broken at 3:10pm. He wrote, "The town sat down with its hands in its pockets to make the best of a very dreary situation. All... had got out of reach of the flood that could, and there was nothing to do but wait; and what impatient waiting it was anyone who has... watched the water rising, and night coming on, can imagine..." Western Union Agent Hettie Ogle and her daughter died in the flood, their bodies never to be recovered. |